THE PERFECTIONIST

THE

PERFECTIO NIST

LEFT Chef Gregory Czarnecki with a selection of his famous creations FAR LEFT A bright orange cocoa butter shell conceals a pineapple and tonka ganache

PERFECTIO NIST PERFECTIO NIST

Rock-star chef Gregory Czarnecki has secret skills that only a select few know about. Anyone lucky enough to try his mindblowing ‘guess-the-fl avour’ bonbons will never go back to eating just any chocolate.

WORDS MICHELLE COBURN

ASPRAY-GUN AND a hairdryer. They don’t sound like usual tools in the arsenal of a professional chocolatier, but then again, ‘usual’ is not a word anyone who knows or works with Gregory Czarnecki would use to describe him. In fact, the award-winning French-born chef doesn’t even call himself a chocolatier.

‘I didn’t study it, it’s not my job,’ he explains as he sprays a fi ne mist of vivid orange cocoa butter into a chocolate mould, occasionally using the hairdryer to warm up the mixture when it becomes too thick. This is how he creates the delicate shells of his bonbons, but he says a home cook could use a small paint brush to thinly paint the cocoa butter onto the moulds, then use a toothpick to create any pattern, zigag or swirl, followed by a second layer of cocoa butter in another colour to fi ll in the lines.

So if making chocolate is not his job, it must be a passion then? A calling? Gregory headed up the kitchen at The Restaurant at Waterkloof (which closed its doors in 2020) for ten years but it was only four years ago that he decided to start making the edible works of art that had become a fi xture at the end of his 15-course degustation menu at the restaurant.

‘I was one of the fi rst people to bring the bonbon to this country – I wanted to offer diners something different,’ he says. ‘I am self-taught. Yes, I did work with chocolate when I was an apprentice but now I

RIGHT, TOP TO BOTTOM

Orange cocoa butter; Chef Gregory Czarnecki uses a spray gun to create the cocoa butter shells

MIDDLE, TOP TO BOTTOM

Delicate shells are formed, into which the ganache will be poured; a spatula is used to smooth the tempered chocolate over the ganache filling

FAR RIGHT, TOP TO BOTTOM

An acetate sheet is placed over the mould and a spatula is run over it to smooth the chocolate base; the bonbons consist of three components: the cocoa butter shell, hand-tempered couverture chocolate, and a chocolate or fruit ganache filling

‘I always make sure that the colour on the outside doesn’t match the flavour on the inside’

guess I have more knowledge, more patience, less arrogance. And I decided that if I was going to make chocolates, they would have to be the best-looking ones I could possibly make. I want to look at them and be proud to have spent so much time on it. For me, it’s the results that matter.’

And it’s the imaginative results of his experiments in colour and flavour that almost defy description. His themed collections of five bonbons per table of two changed constantly, and often included gleaming black pyramids and gemstones; marble-like stones in neutral hues; swirls of yellow, turquoise and purple. Concealed beneath their mirror-like cocoa butter shells are ganache fillings in some rather way-out flavour combinations: if, for some reason, the hazelnut and Parmesan or passion fruit and basil oil do not fascinate you, perhaps the crème fraiche and raspberry vinegar will. What’s more, their creator takes great delight in tricking the senses – the exteriors of Czarnecki’s bonbons give no clue to what diners’ taste buds will experience. ‘I always make sure that the colour on the outside doesn’t match the flavour. Why do yellow if it’s lemon, you know? You want people to be intrigued, to have to figure it out.’

Cocoa loco

CZARNECKI’S EXPERIMENTS IN FLAVOUR HAVE RESULTED IN MIND-BLOWING FLAVOUR COMBINATIONS:

‘You can go really crazy, like with guava and goat’s cheese, or salted hazelnut and Parmesan, where the saltiness comes from infusing Parmesan in the cream we use to make the ganache,’ he says.

Some of his other famous combinations: Burnt lemon and jasmine; crème fraiche and kalamansi; grapefruit and pink peppercorn; clementine and masala; white peach and saffron; mango and piment d’espelette; blood peach and verbena.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT

Bonbons as works of art: Some look like polished stones or marbles, and others like pyramids

Czarnecki’s meticulously created bonbons are demoulded and stored in a special room at 7˚C until two hours before they are to be served

A no-limits attitude, a powerful streak of perfectionism, and using only the best-quality chocolate as the star ingredient – which he works with at precisely controlled temperatures – are the key to his edible works of art. ‘If you just melt chocolate, like people do when they want to dip strawberries, you’re not going to end up with a snappy chocolate. You have to bring it to a higher temperature, quickly lower it, then warm it up again so that you can work with it. There are specific temperatures, depending on the amount of bitterness, origin and type of chocolate you are using.’ (See box: How to temper chocolate like a pro.)

When the chocolate has been expertly tempered, it is poured into the moulds over the set cocoa butter shells. Once the chocolate has had a chance to set, Czarnecki uses a piping bag to add the ganache filling, taking care not to overfill each mould. The ganache is then left to set at room temperature for 24 hours. Now comes the final touch – a last layer of tempered chocolate to seal the deal.

Czarnecki’s meticulously created bonbons are then demoulded and stored in a special room at 7˚C until two hours before they are to be served, at which point they are transferred to another room at 14˚C – this is his advice on the perfect temperature at which chocolate should be served for maximum flavour.

‘I even bought the machine that makes the thermoplastic sheets the bonbons are arranged on. Sure, there are places that can make the sheets for me, but they want you to order thousands and maybe I just want 100. Now that I have the machine, I can do anything with it, you know.’

Indeed he can! 

How to temper chocolate like a pro

THE KEY TO ACHIEVING THE GLOSSIEST BONBONS WITH THE PERFECT SNAP AND MELT-IN-THEMOUTH TEXTURE LIES IN CAREFULLY TEMPERING THE CHOCOLATE. CHEF GREGORY CZARNECKI SHARES HIS TIPS:

1. START WITH A PREMIER COUVERTURE

CHOCOLATE such as the Valrhona Manjari 64%.

2. PLACE THE CHOCOLATE IN A HEATPROOF

BOWL over a pan of simmering water to create a bain-marie. The base of the bowl should sit above the water without touching it.

3. GENTLY MELT THE CHOCOLATE to a temperature of exactly 55˚C. Once you have checked the temperature with a thermometer, remove the bowl containing the chocolate from the bain-marie.

4. NEXT, YOU HAVE TO COOL IT DOWN as quickly as possible. Czarnecki uses the tabling method: Pour the melted chocolate onto a cool marble surface and use a spatula to work it into an even layer to speed up the process.

5. CHECK THE TEMPERATURE CONTINUALLY

until it is at 29˚C. Scrape the chocolate back into the mixing bowl. Gently reheat it to a temperature of 32˚C. It’s now ready to use.